Greek Character Set Fonts

Topics

1 - Greek Encoding Issues

Encoding Greek can be complex and subtle, as the language employs several auxiliary marks, has characters which vary depending upon their position, and includes in its most general form several now archaic characters. The ordinary range of unadorned Greek characters employed in scientific and technical work, however, is much easier.

The most modern standard way to encode Greek characters is Unicode^TM/ISO®-10646. Its handling of Greek is based in turn on ISO-8859-7 (equivalent to Greek National Standard ELOT 928) (Unicode 1.0, Vol. 1, p. 42; RFC 1947). However, Unicode puts the main alphabetic sequences starting at 0x0391 (ALPHA) and 0x03B1 (alpha). Since the Greek coding range starts at 0370, this is equivalent to 0x21 (dec 33) and 0x41 (dec 65) (Unicode 1.0, Vol. 1, p. 200). This is out of sequence with the equivalent ASCII, which starts these with 0d65 (A) and 0d97 (a) Actually, Unicode maps lowercase Greek into the same relative position as uppercase Latin. Writing a VARKON® string at an ASCII keyboard for the first four Greek letters (capital Α Β Γ &Delta) starting at 33 would mean writing: !"#$ Writing the first four Greek letters in lowercase (α β γ &delta) would require writing, in uppercase: ABCD

Instead, I'll employ a mapping which aligns the main alphabetic ASCII and Greek characters as much as possible. For example, the first four characters would be entered as "ABGD" or "abgd". This must necessarily involve some compromise.

The mapping of Latin to Greek characters here for α to ω is based in part on the "Beta Code" developed by David W. Packard and used by the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG®) (I am assuming that the Beta Code for γ is "G" rather than "C" as is published in The 2003 TLG® Beta Code Manual.) Note that this mapping is not itself Beta Code, which is really quite a different thing.

The Hershey Greek glyphs are mapped here into four fonts:

uniplex cartographic taper 0 lineface	very small, sans serif, drawn with single lines, uppercase only
uniplex normal taper 0 lineface	normal size, sans serif, drawn with single lines
duplex indexical taper 1 roman	medium size, serifs, drawn with double lines
duplex normal taper 1 roman	normal size, serifs, drawn with double lines

Here is the mapping of Greek used in these fonts.

				ASCII Encoding Here			Hershey Glyph Number
character	name	phonetic	Unicode	dec	hex	char	Uniplex Cartographic	Uniplex Normal	Duplex Indexical	Duplex Normal
Α α	alpha	a	0391, 03B1	65, 97	41, 61	A, a	27	527, 627	1027, 1127	2027, 2127
Β β	beta	b	0392, 03B2	66, 98	42, 62	B, b	28	528, 628	1028, 1128	2028, 2128
Γ γ	gamma	g	0393, 03B3	71, 103	47, 67	G, g	29	529, 629	1029, 1129	2029, 2129
Δ &delta	delta	d	0394, 03B4	68, 100	44, 64	D, d	30	530, 630	1030, 1130	2030, 2130
Ε ε	epsilon	e	0395, 03B5	69, 101	45, 65	E, e	31	531, 631	1031, 1131	2031, 2131
Ζ ζ	zeta	z	0396, 03B6	90, 122	5A, 7A	Z, z	32	532, 632	1032, 1132	2032, 2132
Η η	eta	short e	0397, 03B7	72, 104	48, 68	H, h	33	533, 633	1033, 1133	2033, 2133
Θ [n/a]	theta, script theta	th	0398, 03D1	81, 113	51, 71	Q, q	34	534, 634	1034, 1134	2034, 2134
Ι ι	iota	i	0399, 03B9	73, 105	49, 69	I, i	35	535, 635	1035, 1135	2035, 2135
Κ κ	kappa	k	039A, 03BA	75, 107	4B, 6B	K, k	36	536, 636	1036, 1136	2036, 2136
Λ λ	lambda	l	039B, 03BB	76, 108	4C, 6C	L, l	37	537, 637	1037, 1137	2037, 2137
Μ μ	mu	m	039C, 03BC	77, 109	4D, 6D	M, m	38	538, 638	1038, 1138	2038, 2138
Ν ν	nu	n	039D, 03BD	78, 110	4E, 6E	N, n	39	539, 639	1039, 1139	2039, 2139
Ξ ξ	xi	ks	039E, 03BE	67, 99	43, 63	C, c	40	540, 640	1040, 1140	2040, 2140
Ο ο	omikron	o	039F, 03BF	79, 111	4F, 6F	O, o	41	541, 641	1041, 1141	2041, 2141
Π π	pi	p	03A0, 03C0	80, 112	50, 70	P, p	42	542, 642	1042, 1142	2042, 2142
Ρ ρ	rho	r	03A1, 03C1	82, 114	52, 72	R, r	43	543, 643	1043, 1143	2043, 2143
Σ σ	sigma	s	03A3, 03C3	83, 115	53, 73	S, s	44	544, 644	1044, 1144	2044, 2144
Τ τ	tau	t	03A4, 03C4	84, 116	54, 74	T, r	45	545, 645	1045, 1145	2045, 2145
Υ υ	upsilon	u	03A5, 03C5	85, 117	55, 75	U, u	46	546, 646	1046, 1146	2046, 2146
Φ [n/a]	phi, script phi	f	03A6, 03D5	70, 102	46, 66	F, f	47	547, 647	1047, 1147	2047, 2147
Χ χ	chi	ch	03A7, 03C7	88, 120	58, 78	X, x	48	548, 648	1048, 1148	2048, 2148
Ψ ψ	psi	ps	03A8, 03C8	89, 121	59, 79	Y, y	49	549, 649	1049, 1149	2049, 2149
Ω ω	omega	short o	03A9, 03C9	87, 119	57, 77	W, w	50	550, 650	1050, 1150	2050, 2150
	alternative epsilon	e	03B5	74	4A	J		684	1184	2184
θ	regular lowercase theta	th	03B8	106	6A	j		685	1185	2185
φ	regular lowercase phi	f	03C5	86	56	V		686	1186	2186
	final sigma	s	03C2	118	76	v		687	1187	2187

The Hershey Glyphs in the uniplex normal, duplex indexical, and duplex normal ranges contain four alternative Greek characters.

The first of these appears to be an alternative epsilon which more closely resembles the mathematical sign for "element of."

The second of these is a regular lowercase theta. The lowercase theta used in the main sequence is a script theta (Unicode/ISO 10646 03D1), identified by the Unicode standard as a technical symbol.

The third of these is a regular lowercase phi. The lowercase phi used in the main sequence is a script phi (Unicode/ISO 10646 03D5), identified by the Unicode standard as a technical symbol.

The fourth of these is a conventional final sigma.

I've rather arbitrarily mapped this alternative theta in to the otherwise unused ASCII positions J, j, V, and v. This use of V and v conflicts with BetaCode, which maps these to digamma. BetaCode uses "S2" for final sigma.

In these Greek fonts, the ASCII positions occupied by normal ASCII punctuation and digits are occupied by corresponding punctuation and digits taken from typographically related glyphs. The ASCII positions 0 to 31 (decimal) and 172 (decimal) are unused. The non-ASCII positions from 128 to 255 (decimal) are unused. The use of characters in this space makes Unicode/UTF-8 migration difficult. Even though VARKON does not support Unicode/UTF-8, I'm omitting them in the hope that in the future it will.

Since Greek characters often are used for mathematics, a good argument could be made for mapping Hershey mathematical symbols into unused space in the character maps. Were this done, it might be useful to consult the character mapping used by Prof. Don Knuth in his TeX typesetting system, as that system is used by many mathematicians. I have not done this mapping, though.

Forward to 2 - Cartographic uniplex taper 0 lineface: Greek Letters, Arabic Numerals, and Punctuation

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The data, files, text, and programs of the Holzmann USENET Hershey Glyph Distribution may be redistributed and used freely under their original terms as specified in the Holzmann USENET Hershey Glyph Distribution Cover Statement. The distribution here complies with these terms. The data of the Hershey Glyphs as transformed for use with VARKON may be redistributed and used freely under these same terms. I assert no additional rights or conditions on the use of the transformed data. Some of the text and programs in the Holzmann USENET Hershey Font Distribution may be Copyright 1986 by Peter Holzmann and/or James Hurt. Their own terms either allow or require their redistribution with the Hershey data. The distribution of these texts, files, data, and programs here is subject to all of the disclaimers of warranty and liability noted herein.

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Unicode is a trademark of Unicode, Inc.
VARKON is or was a trademark of Microform AB (Sweden).

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